Potatoes, Two Very Different Recipes with Identical Ingredients!

I love potatoes.  That statement is either a food-geek statement or Irish and I'm not Irish, so I'm going with food geek.

Potatoes are really amazing if you take the time to think about it.  What an versatile food source.  I can think of about twenty ways to prepare them without even trying, most are really tasty, a few are train wrecks.  Since this is a blog about tasty, I'll stick to that.

Today I’ll cover two recipes with the exact same ingredients that turn out very differently and with very different flavors.

First, one of my favorite recipes for potatoes is Röesti, think "crispy, thick, round hash browns cakes".  Very few restaurants make Röesti, and the ones that do, seem to know what they are doing.

Secondly, Hash Browns.  Most of the hash browns that I have had lately have rated between moderately disappointing to "really?!?".

Let’s start with the easier of the two to make:

Hash browns are so easy, I don't know why they are almost universally unsatisfying.  Maybe the cooks feel that hey are in too much of a hurry, or maybe it is becoming a lost art.

One of the issues that I have had lately with potato preparations such as these is that when they arrive at the table, the first visual encounter with the meal disappoints.

I have a favorite food writer, a man named Brillat-Savarin.  You may not have heard of him because he wrote about food in the 1820's.  His most important work was "The Physiology of Taste" published in 1825 two months before his death.  The book has not been out of print.  Check it out, he had a way to describe the cuisine of his day that was without parallel.

One of my favorite quotes of his became my mantra, or one of them, when I was a line cook and then later as a chef "You eat first with your eyes".  I have tried to find this quote that I have attributed to him for nearly 20 years and cannot find it exactly as I have quoted it.  Whether he said it or not, I believe that it does define his ideas in simple terms of his writing. I really hope that I find that quote, because I love it and live it.

Both preparations start exactly the same way.

First, hash browns.  I start by peeling a few russets and rinse them in cold water.  This stops them from discoloring.  If you choose not to rinse them the starch will start to turn the outer layer of the potato to turn a reddish color.  This does not impact the flavor or taste of the final product, it just changes the look.

I use a box grater for hash browns as I feel the a thinner cut helps them have a better look.  

There are two schools of thought about the next step, you can either place them in cold water and drain them prior to cooking or squeeze the water and starch out with your hands.  Both have practical applications, today I'll rinse them.

Put some butter and a bit of olive oil blend (I make my own, 1/4 Extra Virgin Olive Oil and 3/4 canola oil) and turn on the burner to full.  The oil helps stops the butter from burning and creates a good medium for flavor and presentation.

Lay the shredded potato in a thin layer in the pan, season lightly with kosher salt and let it roll for a few minutes.  What you want to create is a golden surface on the bottom before turning.  Most of the hash browns that I have eaten in the past few years has had too little oil/butter involved and what is produced has an almost burnt, inconsistent browning.

Once the potatoes have achieved the proper caramelization, turn them over and repeat on the other side.  Don't be afraid to add a little butter if you feel that there is not enough for the current side that is in contact with the pan.  Season with kosher salt and serve.

Röesti is a different animal all together.  For this preparation I use my French mandolin.  This machine cuts thin square sticks of potato, similar to a julienne, but a little finer or smaller in size.

With this cut of potato, I squeeze the water and starch out with my hands as I want some of the starch to work for me in making the final product but I don't need all of it.

I was introduced to Röesti at a two restaurants in San Francisco where I held the position of sous chef in the mid-nineties.  One restaurant had a traditional plain potato version.  At the other we made one that instead of butter used rendered duck fat to cook the potatoes.  We also put caramelized onions in the center which is something that makes the Röesti so fun and adds a little splash of flavor and color.

In the first restaurant where I held the position of chef, our Röesti had sautéed red mustard leaves in the center.

To start shred the potatoes on a mandolin (if you have one), use the large grate side of a box grater if you don't, this will create a very different look than the one I’m showing here and will have a slightly different flavor.  

Put a table spoon of butter in your pan with a little of you olive oil blend.  An 8" non-stick pan is best, and turn the heat to high.  While the butter is melting, squeeze the water and starch out of the grated/shredded potato. And transfer to the pan.

With a heat proof rubber spatula, press down the errant pieces of potato to make the Röesti as round as possible.  Let it cook for a minute or two.  Add small amounts of butter to the outer sides and rotate the Röesti so that it cooks evenly.

Here comes the hard part.  This bit takes practice.  At this point you need to flip the Röesti onto the other side.  The idea is to get the Röesti to turn over in the air and land in the flat in the pan.  I have tried with limited success to us a wide spatula for this part.

Add butter to the Röesti at the four corners of the pan (12-3-6-9 o'clock).  Let it caramelize for a few minutes and rotate again with your heat proof rubber spatula.

Once the desired color has been reached, remove it from the pan and cut into 6 pieces and serve.  Yumm!

If you're interested in a Röesti that is filled, lay the half of potato and then add the filling, it is reasonably important to make sure that the filling has a low moisture level as this will affect the final product.

Once you get this dish down, go ahead and play with it.

Wild Mushrooms

One of the greatest joys in my life, aside from my family, has got to be mushroom hunting.  It is by far my favorite diversions even though I do nearly all of my hunting in the fall.

This spring I intend to go out and hunt some mushrooms, I've just never done it during this time of year.  I dearly love morels, one of the gold standards of the mushrooming crowd, but I have never found one.  Not one.  Thought one honest, I have not really given tithe old college try yet. 

In the fall however, I have had some spectacular days in the woods collecting chanterelles, porcini, boletes, shrimp mushrooms, hedgehogs and even two amazing cauliflower mushrooms.

Although I often go into the woods by myself, one of my true joys of this activity is sharing it with others.  Be they friends or family, for me the joy comes from sharing my love of the adventure and experience of finding the sometimes allusive fungus.

One of my favorite partners in this pursuit is my son.  Maybe someday he will actually eat a mushroom, at this time they are among a list of no-go items for him.  He is however one of the best hunters with whom I have ever ventured into the forest!  His prize find about two years ago was a 5 pound cauliflower mushroom!

The chanterelles seem to call out to him.  We often take an hour or two on a Saturday or Sunday in the fall to go and spend some quality time together.  For him, I think, part of the draw is to be in the quiet of the woods, to find something that I find of value and that he has become particularly skilled at finding.

I have also found some amazing specimens that I would never pick such as this two foot tall Destroying Angel (the car key at it’s base is a little over 4 inches long).  Eat this one and it will put the kabosh on any plans you may have.  It is described as “deadly poisonous”.

My rule of thumb is: If I cannot positively identify it beyond any doubt, we don’t eat it.  Consider the mushroom below.  It is either an Oyster Mushroom (edible) or a Western Jack-o-Lantern (poisonous).  I passed.

This love of wild mushrooms started at Röti, a restaurant where I held the position of sous chef.  At that time there was a vendor who would call on us unexpectedly and offer his myriad of gathered items that he had in his truck.  We called him "Franco the mushroom man".  He was a great guy and had some wonderful stuff in that truck.

At times he had truffles (white and black), hedgehogs, chanterelles, black trumpets, yellow foot chanterelles, maitakes etc.  He also from time to time had fiddle head ferns, huckleberries and some domesticated mushrooms.

At the time, it did not occur to me that I could find these myself.  In The City that all seemed so exotic.  I also had no idea where to go.

Enter my friend Philip.  About 8 years ago he was given some reasonably vague directions from an acquaintance for a spot that was likely to yield chanterelles and asked us if we want to go on a hunt with him.  We readily accepted.

What a day we had.  Our first unusual experience was when Philip and my wife were in  a little country store getting permits for us to remove forest products and the woman behind the counter asked "You got your orange, right?". To which I am sure he gave a vague "city dweller" answer.  Her response was that it was opening day.

Opening day to me has always meant baseball.  We rolled her statement around for a while as we continued to drive to this alleged mushroom spot.  When upon seeing hunters, not our type, but ones with guns, we realized it was opening day of dear season!

The orange that my jacket contained was two half inch wide strips that we're next to the zipper, on the inside.

That day we found a treasure trove of delightful wild mushrooms and left shortly after the second rifle shot was heard that was reasonably close to us.

I have often returned to that spot.  We all wear orange hunting vest so that we do not become the quarry of an inexperienced hunter that shoots at movement without seeing his actual goal.  

This spot in the forest has served me and my family well, often giving us a bounty for which we are all grateful.  

these days, my interest is also piqued by trying to identify the other mushrooms that I see on my hunting trips.  For this I have a really good field guide called “All That Rain Promises”.  It is in my pocket more often than not when I go into the forest.

However there are some fungi out there that are not in this book and I take photos so that they may be identified later and placed firmly on the “eat” or the “don’t eat” list.  Here are some of the unidentified fungi, I would appreciate a little help if any of you know some of these.

Remember, edible mushrooms can be found all over!  I have picked porcini and boletes from the wood chips in neighborhood gardens and a slippery jack from a neighbors lawn!

There are days that I go to the woods and return with nothing except the experience of a lovely day in the quiet.  For that I am thankful as well.

Onion Soup as it Should be Made

This winter has been pretty funky weather wise, alternately cold and temperate.  Well today it's not really all that cold, but with the rain, the breeze and the temperature it is one of those situations that chills you to the bone.

This got me thinking "French Onion Soup"!  

There are a few dishes that I do not order when I go out to eat because I am routinely disappointed.  Creme Brûlée and French Onion Soup are the two main ones.  I have trouble not ordering them because I love them so, but I am nearly always bummed out when they arrive because they are not as good as I hoped and I usually can make a better version.

Most of the bowls that I have received in restaurants have either been made with bouillon (over salted broth that usually comes in cubes that are dissolved in water), and nearly all of them seemed more like a broth with onions in it rather than an onion soup.

O-soup should be entirely onions with a little bit of broth that acts as a  vehicle for the caramelized onions.  It should be loose enough that it can't be called anything but a soup, but just barely.

I have developed the will power to avoid the onion soup primarily because the last really good one I had in a restaurant was probably 10-12 years ago.  If anybody knows where to get a great bowl of it, let me know, because currently my house is the only place I go for it!

Here is the recipe for a 3 qt batch of soup:

3 quarts of white or yellow onion cut lyonnaise style

2 large shallots cut lyonnaise style

4 large garlic cloves minced

1/4 # butter

2 quarts chicken stock

1 C Demi glace (if you have it)

1 C Madeira 

2 bay leaves

Kosher salt

White pepper

For the topping:

Sliced baguette

Gruyer grated

First let's talk onions.  White onions are the best for this soup as they produce the finest end product.  Sweet onions and red onions are a no-go.  This is why.  The white onion is the sharpest of the onions, for that reason they also store the best.  This sharpness is a sign of potential sugar.  Yellow comes in a close second due to just slightly less potential sugar.

It is the sugar in the onion that gives the soup it's lovely brown color and the rich body that is associated with this classic soup.  The important thing to latch onto here is that the soup will be better if you develop the sugar rather than starting with an onion that is already sweet.  You will be developing their sugars with the cooking process.

The red and sweet onions have a ton of actual sugar in them and therefore are more  volatile in storage.  By this I mean their shelf life is limited.  Partly because they are a great deal more attractive to our little nemesis the fruit fly and partly because they hold more moisture and are prone to rot.  The soup made with these will likely end up as a cloudy, mushy glop that, if not in color, in texture is more akin to congee (a Chinese porridge made from yesterday's rice).

 O.K. I've put the soap box away, let's make soup.

Cut you onions in the Lyonnaise style (lengthwise with the grain).  If you need instruction on this one see my Knife Skill 101 blog post.

Into your stock pot or large sauce pan melt the butter over medium heat.

Once melted, add the onions, garlic and shallots.  Be sure that the onions go in first.  It would be a shame to burn the garlic and be on a rescue mission from the get go.

Once the onions are in the pan you need to pay pretty clove attention to them, not so much at first, but once their volume begins to decrease with cooking be sure to stirr them frequently with a wooden spoon.  Take care to run the spoon into the corners of the pot so that the accumulating sugars do not burn.

Once you start to see the color of the onions change, this soup requires your full attention.

Continue to cook the onions while incorporating the more caramelized onions with the parts that are less caramelized.

There are short cuts that many use at this time to make the process easier, but the end products not as good, and therefore in my opinion not worth my effort.  The most common shortcut is the addition of brown sugar, but why? All the sugar you need is already here!

At this time keep on top of the caramelization, it should be even and becoming quite dark (brown, not black.  Black is an indication of bitterness which is not what we seek).

Once the desired color has been reached, deglaze the soup with Madeira. And add the bay leaves.

Cook the Madeira to a point where it is almost dry and add your chicken stock and Demi (if you have it).  The Demi is not necessary for this recipe as the lions share of the color of your soup should come from the caramelization of the onions.

Continue to simmer the soup and season with kosher salt and white pepper.  Remember, the finished product should resemble a bowl full of onions with some broth to make it loose.

If you have too much liquid, some of your cheese will sink into the broth during the final step.

O.K. The soup is done, time for service!  Place a couple of slices of bread on top of you hot soup, cover this with the grated gruyere and place under the broiler until the cheese is melted and just starting to brown. 

Pull from the oven and serve.   

The Best Caesar Dressing (in my opinion anyway)

I find it humorous when Italian restaurants serve Caesar salads and claim them to be from the homeland.  Caesar salad is from Mexico, made by an italian chef, but in Mexico.

There is some confusion as to who actually invented the salad as many people assert that they created it.  All of them worked with Caesar Cardini during the 1920's in Tijuana where Cardini owned a restaurant.  Cardini himself is cited by most when the creator of the Caesar salad is the topic being discussed.

The salad in it's current form is slightly different from the recipe that is purported to be the original.  According to my research, the anchovies used in today's caesar salads were absent in the original unless you take into account their presence in Worcestershire sauce.

Caesar salad is one of my favorite menu items.  It can be an amazing dish that I dearly love to eat.  That is if it is a good one.

I make a pretty kick-ass Caesar dressing, most of the dressings that are used in restaurants are decidedly not kick-ass.  In fact most of the caesar salads that I have had while out dining are horrible.  For this reason, it is one of the items that I will almost never order in a restaurant unless I am sure that it is a good version.

This recipe is a cold emulsion similar in technique to creating an aioli or mayonnaise.  For those of you who are unfamiliar, an emulsion is where two liquids are combined in a homogenous liquid that combines both where neither is individually recognizable.  I guess to be fair, in this recipe the "liquids" are lipids, or a type of fat.  I don't know if egg yolk can really be called a liquid.  I'm a little fuzzy on the subject there.  

The final difference between the aioli and mayonnaise in this recipe is the addition of favors and liquids to manipulate the texture of the final product.

Here is my recipe:

1 egg yolk

1 T Dijon Mustard

20 oz Canola/Olive Oil Blend

1 T Anchovy Paste

2 oz Lemon Juice

2 T Cold Water

1/2 tsp Kosher Salt

3 oz Pecorino Romano (finely grated)

2 tsp Minced Garlic

Black Pepper

I make my dressing in a glass bowl with a wire whip.  In order to stop the bowl from rocking around on the counter, I make a ring for it to sit in with a kitchen towel.

I start with an egg yolk and some Dijon mustard.  The Dijon does not add a whole lot of flavor to the dressing, it helps with the emulsion.  Egg yolks are an amazing little beastie that can hold a ton of oil in suspension, but I want a helping hand, so I add the mustard.  It is not necessary to add the mustard to the dressing.  Your call.

Whip the yolk until it begins to thicken in texture.

Slowly add about two oz of oil while you continue to whip the mixture.  Continue until the oil is completely emulsified.

Continue this method of slowly adding a couple of ounces at a time and incorporating it.  The mixture will start to get really thick, like a heavy mayonnaise.  

I add two tablespoons of cold water at this point to make the texture more loose.

Now you can go a little faster with the oil.  Be careful to not go too fast as you will run the risk of breaking the emulsion.

Once all of the oil has been incorporated, it is time to flavor it.  Add the garlic, kosher salt, pepper, anchovy paste and lemon juice.  With the wire whip mix all of these into the dressing.  

The last thing that I put in is the cheese.

When all of the ingredients have been added, taste it to see if it is balanced.  A word of warning, if you don't taste the garlic right away, that is o.k., it will come out in a day or so.

Make this one and let me know if you're going to continue eating caesar when you go out, and if you do, who makes the best regardless of where you live, I'd like to know.

Chicken Stock - Liquid Gold

I went down to the freezers this morning to get the stock and Demi-glace to make some French Onion Soup today and while I had enough of both to make the soup, they were my last containers of both.  So I decided to make chicken stock instead.

A well made chicken stock in your freezer is a beautiful thing to have lying about.  Useful in more preparations than I could mention in a lifetime.  

I learned how to make a really good stock in culinary school, prior to that time I had worked in restaurants that relied on bullion for our broths.  These came in two main forms: a paste that resides in a larger bucket or cup.  They range in size from 8 fl oz to half gallon or so.  The other is in hard cubes.  Neither of them are any good when compared to the real deal.

In classical French cuisine, stocks are classified as "Fond du Cuisine", or the foundation of the food/kitchen.  I could not agree more.

When we cut chicken in our kitchen, any bones that are removed for whatever preparation we are making are bagged and frozen to be made into stock at a later date when the need arises.

I removed the many bags of bones from the freezer and retrieved my stock pot from the cupboard.  

I have a 20 qt stainless steel stock pot that I use for my stocks.  It is important to make sure that you use a non-reactive pot for your stocks.  It would every disappointing to make a stock and find that after all your work that it tastes like metal.

First I put the bones in the stock pot and cover them with cold water.  

It is vitally important that you start your stocks with cold water.  When you start with cold water, you'll be able to extract the gelatins from the collagen on the bones.

O.K. Time for a little talk about gelatin, it's sources and why it's important in your stock.  The gelatin in your stock is what gives it body, a richness that is unobtainable with the cubes and pastes that many people use for their soups.

Collagen dissolves at low temperatures, therefore you need to start with cold water to start your stock.  If you start with hot water, the collagen seals itself and becomes unavailable.  So start with as cold water as you can.  The gelatin is also a preservative that will help your stock last longer should you choose to store it in the refrigerator and use it quickly.

Turn on the heat to full and let it go.  The water temp will rise slowly and extract the gelatin.  

The next step is to prepare your mirepoix (meer-a-pwah).  

The traditional mirepoix is onions, carrots, leeks and celery.  I leave the leeks out of my chicken stock and keep my carrots to a minimum.

Once you have started the heat on the stock, bring it to a boil and then reduce to a very low simmer and let it roll for 5-7 hours.  If you let the stock keep boiling you will end up with a very cloudy end product that isn't very attractive and will likely have some unintended "off" flavors.  

Once it has achieved the boil and been reduced to a simmer, remove the gray foamy substance from the surface of the stock. Also remove as much of the rendered fat from the surface.

Once you have de-greased the stock, add the mirepoix.

After the allotted 6-7 hours of simmer has past, it is time to strain the stock. 

For this I use a chinoise, a fine mesh strainer that will hold back all but the smallest of particles.  

Usually I use a small sauce pan to bail the stock out and pour it through the chinoise and into an 8 quart container.  

From here I pour it into 1 qt containers for storage in the freezer.  

Remember to label and date the stock before it is frozen.